Madam Tan Gaik Bee's first pregnancy was relatively trouble-free for 33 weeks until she started bleeding profusely one evening.

Her husband rushed her to KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), where doctors found that the 34-year-old clerk's placenta had begun separating from the wall of her uterus.

Less than 15 minutes later, doctors performed an emergency caesarean, saving both the mother and baby.

For its well-oiled emergency measures in the delivery suite, KKH received this year's Asian Hospital Management Award for Patient Safety and Risk Management at a ceremony in Bangkok on Thursday night. The awards - judged by a panel comprising representatives from, among others, the International Hospital Federation and Johns Hopkins International - are given annually to outstanding projects which promote best hospital management practices in the region.

This year, a total of 165 entries from over 50 hospitals in 11 countries competed for awards in nine categories. Other Singapore winners include Gleneagles Hospital for customer service and Changi General Hospital, which received an IT award for an interactive patient guide on its website.

KKH's comprehensive risk management programme covers speedy staff mobilisation, constant reviews and audits, training and a computerised early warning system.

The measures have paid off not just in terms of getting awards. The hospital's director of clinical quality, Dr Kelvin Tan Kok Hian, said the hospital probably has the lowest eclampsia rate for a tertiary maternity hospital in the world - 6.9 per 100,000 deliveries so far this year.

Eclampsia refers to fit attacks suffered by pregnant women who come down with high blood pressure. KKH's eclampsia rate has gone down from 67 per 100,000 births in 1994 to 16 per 100,000 births last year.

KKH's performance of decision-to-delivery interval (time between the decision to operate and actual delivery) averages 7.6 minutes; the international benchmark is 30 minutes. Dr Tan said: 'When the system is activated, a public announcement is made to mobilise the medical and nursing staff.'

When Madam Tan was wheeled into the hospital at about 11pm on Oct 1, staff immediately recognised the symptoms of severe pre-eclampsia and abruption.

The obstetrician on duty, Dr Jeanette Chen, activated the hospital's emergency code for immediate caesarean operations.

Dr Chen, 34, who has worked in Wolverhampton Hospital in Birmingham, England for three years, said: 'This is definitely a very good system. When I was in the UK, we had to shout here, page there, call here, because you don't know where the people are. Here, all it takes is one public page and everybody hears and everybody runs.'

In Madam Tan's case, her 1.6kg baby boy was delivered barely 20 minutes after she arrived in the hospital. Baby Xavier is now recovering in the intensive care unit.

The grateful mother said in Mandarin: 'They told me that if I had come in just a bit later, both the baby and I would have been in danger.'